Is it possible to have a familiar and not even know it? My household has a few cats, and I want to learn more about a familiar and how to achieve getting a familiar.

At one point, I believe I had a familiar, My cat who was almost seventeen. He passed away this past summer. But the reason why I'm not sure is because he had been our families cat since I can remember. He had always been around me and I don't have him here anymore.

He followed me around and sticked by me. He even got the nickname of being my little "Shadow."

Remember animals aren't always physical but astral and mental animals also have that capability they are different from most human spirits of dead who of some usually have karmic duties but animals usually guide humans there are also fammiliars on aetheric plane which if you ask me is only like a copy of this one

I'm not sure where the idea that a pet is the same as a familiar came from. I guess I have to blame it on some of the crop of poorly researched books on the market these days. But the fact of the matter is that our beloved pets and a Witch's familiar are very, very different things.

A Witch's familiar is an animal spirit or a magical construct created by the Witch or the Magician as an adjunct to their magical workings, as a repository for power, and if needed as a defense against magical attack from another magic user. A Witch or a magician can draw upon the energies of the familiar when they need an extra boost of energy in a magical working. Conceivably if the spell is important enough, the Witch could completely drain the familiar of energy causing it to "die" or cease to exist. And in the case of a magical attack, the attack could be diverted to the familiar so that it would be the familiar which is destroyed rather than the magic user. None of these are things that I think any of us would want to do with our pets.

There is an excellent article on familars here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familiar_spirit

Animals are very sensitive to the energies around them and they may be drawn to us when we are working magic because they can sense the energy. They also want to be around their people, which again will make them want to be where we are..and that may be where we are doing magic. Neither of these things makes the animal a familiar or inherently magical in and of itself.